


whenever you're in trouble, won't you stand by me

by taizi



Category: Final Fantasy XV, Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Growing Up Together, M/M, Team as Family, the natsuyuu/ffxv crossover literally no one asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-18 18:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20643590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taizi/pseuds/taizi
Summary: Kaname kneels, heart hammering. It’s taken him this long to wrap his mind around it, to catch up to the conversation. Takashi, his best friend, hisfiancé, the boy he promised his heart to whole years before the peace treaty was even a concept, is free. He’s here, in Lucis. He’s waiting for them.“Where is he?” Kaname whispers. “Take me to him.”“And what about your babysitters? And your car?” the cat asks dryly.“They’ll follow,” Kaname decides on the spot. In the corner of his eye, he sees Atsushi and Tooru gear up for an argument, and Satoru shut them down with two swift swats. “They’ll meet us– wherever. Just take me to him.”





	1. Chapter 1

They’re setting up camp at a haven in Duscae when Satoru says, “Oh, look—it’s Nyanko-sensei.”**  
**

Kaname looks up quickly, and Tooru gasps in delight, as the fat cat-like creature waddles up the rune-carved stone.

It’s carrying the notebook in a sling on its back, and Kaname hurries to meet it as Atsushi mutters, “I still can’t believe you call a messenger that stupid name, Satoru.”

“We go way back!”

“Madara,” Kaname says, “how are you? How is—“

“He’s fine,” the creature grumbles irreverently. “You’d know if he wasn’t. Hurry up and read his letter, I didn’t come all this way for my health.”

While his friends clamor around the squat astral, Kaname flips through the pages of a notebook eagerly to find whatever new message is waiting for him. He’s familiar and comfortable with magic as a concept, but the notebook is something he’s secretly in awe of. It’s as thin and sleek as it’s always been, the number of pages unchanging, but somehow it contains every note they’ve ever written and they’ve never once run out of room.

Kaname takes a moment to brush his fingers over a letter he wrote when he was ten, his childish handwriting hopeful and earnest where it’s preserved beneath a pressed syllablossom. 

But Madara is waiting, dealing with Tooru and Satoru’s affections with ill grace, so Kaname hurries to the last marked page. 

He reads it hungrily, pauses, reads it through more carefully, and then reads it for a third time to make sure he’s read it right. 

“Um, Madara,” he says slowly. “This says Takashi officially denounced the prophecy and left Tenebrae? And he’s waiting for us at the Tomb of the Pious?”

His retinue goes deathly silent, the only sound the rustle of the wind in the grass and the chatter of busy evening insects. Madara says, “That’s because he is, brat.”

“And you just _left_ him there?” Atsushi demands. “The _Oracle_ is just– roaming around Lucis somewhere? Anything could happen!”

Probably the only god who wouldn’t react violently to being spoken to so flippantly, Madara rolls his eyes. 

“He’s got that oar of his and he’s not afraid to use it. And a few of my friends are keeping an eye on him, not that I asked them to. He’s not as helpless as his public image would like you to think.”

“But why has he done this?” Tooru asks, frowning. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m _delighted _he made it away from an occupied state, but why now?”

“Because the Six finally told him the truth about the prophecy. The truth about what victory will cost,” the little god says. “And he told the Six where they could stick their prophecy, told his brother to pack a bag, and we left within the hour.”

The cat looks gleeful, but he’s the only one. Tooru covers her mouth, horrified, and Atsushi buries his face in his hands as if he doesn’t have the strength to keep his head up. 

Satoru whispers, “Sweet Shiva. We’re all cursed, aren’t we?”

Madara gives him a look that lacks the perpetual annoyance he has for the rest of them. “Why would _you _be cursed?”

“Don’t be like that, Nyanko-sensei! We’re in this together! If Takashi’s cursed, so are we!”

Kaname kneels, heart hammering. It’s taken him this long to wrap his mind around it, to catch up to the conversation. Takashi, his best friend, his _fiancé__, _the boy he promised his heart to whole years before the peace treaty was even a concept, is free. He’s _here, _in Lucis. He’s waiting for them.

“Where is he?” Kaname whispers. “Take me to him.”

“And what about your babysitters? And your car?” the cat asks dryly. 

“They’ll follow,” Kaname decides on the spot. In the corner of his eye, he sees Atsushi and Tooru gear up for an argument, and Satoru shut them down with two swift swats. “They’ll meet us– wherever. Just take me to him.”

The messenger eyes him up and down for a long moment. Then he makes a big show of rolling his eyes and tucking the notebook back into its sling on his back. 

“Show me your map.”

Madara points out an area of Cleigne, a hidden thicket where a royal tomb is waiting, two days’ drive if Atsushi bends the speed limit wherever he can get away with it. None of them are happy with Kaname’s decision to go ahead alone, but they know better than to put up more than a token fuss about it. He’s safer with Madara than he is with an army at his back. 

“You’ll see me soon,” Kaname says to his friends, loving them for the frustration and loyalty in their faces. “You’ll see us both. And we’ll walk together from then on.”

“Right,” Satoru says, lifting his fist to knock their forearms together. “Get going so we can get going. Sooner we leave the sooner we get there.” 

Madara transforms in a burst of heavy smoke, the runes of the Haven glowing a little brighter as he stands above them in his celestial body. 

“Hurry up, then,” he grumbles, his great voice rolling over them. Kaname climbs up without a second thought. He has time to wave once, and then Madara is leaping into the air and bearing them both away. 

They’re moving quickly, up and up, earth falling away and cloud-mist drenching Kaname’s shirt. He leans forward to shout, “Thank you, Ponta!”

“Don’t thank me, brat. He was hoping you’d come.” 

The admission warms Kaname from the inside-out, until he can hardly feel the cold air rushing past them on all sides. His fingers woven into the thick, downy fur send his thoughts back years and years, after the attack that almost cost him his legs, those stolen, weightless moments late at night when Takashi would help him onto the god’s back, so he could fly even when he couldn’t walk. 

“What was the rest of the prophecy?” he thinks to ask, distracted by thoughts of his love, of seeing him again after such a long time apart. Kaname’s heart is so light that he thinks, without this grip on Madara’s fur, he might float away. “What was the price?”

For a moment, Madara doesn’t answer. Then he says, “Don’t worry about it. It’s not a price we’re going to pay.”


	2. Chapter 2

Kaname’s heart is in his throat. He thinks he might choke on it. 

His Shield uncurls from where she’s tucked around Takashi’s limp body, eyes sharp and trained as they rake him up and down to assess the damage. 

“Tooru,” Satoru says urgently, white-faced. He’s still clutching his gun in his hand, as though he’s forgotten the practiced, throwaway magic of banishing it to the Armiger in his fear. 

“How are we on curatives?” she asks. Her voice is tight, and it gives away how _bad_ this is. “Do we have any left?”

Everyone’s gaze flickers over to Atsushi almost as one. The adviser is biting the inside of his cheek, furious in a directionless way. 

“We used the last one on my arm,” he mutters. It was a bad injury, and well worth a potion, but clearly he regrets using it now. 

Kaname kneels on Tooru’s other side, and lifts the Oracle out of her lap. The weight of him is light, for all that he’s practically deadweight. The lifeless way he lolls against Kaname’s chest makes him feel sick. 

He wishes Ponta were here, even if there’s nothing the messenger could do. He wishes Takashi was still safe with Shuuichi back in Tenebrae, if this is the alternative. He wishes he hadn’t melted under Takashi’s fierce, fearless eyes, wishes he hadn’t gone soft when the god-touched boy told him _“I belong here, with you” _because it was true and right and wonderful but Kaname couldn’t _protect him– _

“Acchan, get the car,” Satoru is saying somewhere above and behind him. “There’s a hospital in Lestallum, we can be there in half an hour if we break the law a few times.”

“I don’t know if we should move him,” Tooru interrupts. “He hit his head hard, he’s still bleeding– “

Kaname bows his head and touches his forehead to Takashi’s. His thoughts are thready with panic, his stomach twisting at the idea that his fiance might not come out of this okay, and he can feel the magic in his blood surging, pulsing, rising. There’s no enemy to strike down, no spell to craft, no energy drink to roll between his hands and turn into a curative for Atsushi to pack away alongside the storebought antidotes and remedies.

But he has the magic. 

And Takashi’s right here, infinitely more precious than any flask or catalyst. 

And it’s stupid and reckless and probably hopeless but Kaname closes his eyes and visualizes a spellcast– packs it down, softens the electric edges of battle magic into something with less fire, imagines Takashi’s body is a container– and pushes. 

It takes a second, if that. It happens so quickly Kaname thinks he might have imagined it. But around him, his Crownsguard go still and silent. There are sunspots in his eyes and the burnt afterimages of magic lingering in the air. 

Takashi’s wounds close, and his face smooths as he shifts toward a more peaceful sleep. 

“Holy Six,” Satoru breathes, as though afraid to speak too loudly and shatter the moment. He’s _still_ clutching his gun. “Was that– did you just– “

“When did you learn _that, _your highness?” Atsushi asks, wide-eyed. “I thought the Oracle was the one with the healing touch.”

“And why the _hell_ did you let me walk around with a burn on my wrist for two days because we couldn’t afford a potion?” Tooru blurts.

Kaname closes his eyes, so relieved he’s trembling. He doesn’t think he has the strength to stand without putting Takashi down, and he’d sit here all night before he’d do _that. _Lucky for him, he’s never had to stand alone.

With Satoru and Atsushi on one side, and Tooru on the other, Kaname tucks Takashi against his chest, listens to the reassuring beat of his heart, and walks tall. 


End file.
